Posts by Phlush
Sixty years after first successful Everest ascent, US mountaineers develop appropriate high altitude toilet technology.
August 19, 2013 by Abby Brown It’s been 60 years since climbers first summited Mount Everest. Around 3,500 people have made it to the top so far, and that number doesn’t include climbers and Sherpas living at lower base camps. But what has become strikingly clear in the 21st century is that people are…
Read MoreStories from the Street: PSU team explores toiletlessness
July 1, 2013 Students from Portland State University’s Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Affairs and Planning, have recently completed a project on the consequences of toiletlessness. After spending the winter academic term on background and planning, the Right to Relief team spent the spring term exploring the issues in collaboration with PHLUSH. They hit…
Read MorePlease take the Portland Public Toilets and Transportation Survey
Portland State University student Kate Washington has chosen to partner with PHLUSH in carrying out research on the relationship between public restrooms and public transit, specifically whether public toilet availability encourages ridership. To this end she has launched the Portland State University 2013 Public Toilets and Transportation Survey. Portlanders are urged to spend a…
Read MoreNew PHLUSH exhibit premiers at National VOAD Conference
This week the Portland Hilton is buzzing with the energy of hundreds of impassioned volunteers and salaried colleagues who manage the nation’s most important disaster response agencies. It’s the annual conference of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster a coalition of hundreds of organizations – faith-based, community-based, and other non-governmental organizations – and 55 VOADs…
Read MoreJoin the Twin Bucket Brigade!
Nothing says community like a bucket brigade. Chains of neighbors passing buckets have put out fires and saved their towns. Buckets of rubble passed hand-to-hand have enabled rescuers to reach survivors of earthquakes and landslides. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have an earthquake in our future. Experts say water and sewer services will be interrupted…
Read MoreShorts: News from the public toilet front
Public restrooms have always been on the leading edge of the fight for human rights. Never has this been more true than now for transgender folks. But as Campus Progress notes with dismay, hateful discrimination against them may soon be protected under Arizona Law. State Representative John Kavanaugh‘s most recent bill is on its way to…
Read More"Last Call at the Oasis" to screen March 22 World Water Day
Every year on World Water Day, PHLUSH joins local groups to highlight global water issues that impact sanitation and hygiene. This year’s celebration is a special screening of Last Call at the Oasis at the Clinton Street Theater on March 22 at 8pm. Look for us along with Green Empowerment, El Porvenir and our waterless Twin Bucket Emergency Toilet.…
Read MoreThe Hovering Cycle
A guest post on toilet cleanliness and toilet use by Thomas Levine from thomaslevine.com. Sitting Toilets Western sitting-style toilets are presumably intended to be used in a seated position, (McClelland & Ward, 1982) except when used by males for exclusively urination. A sign on a bathroom in my college dorm illustrates this expectation. But the…
Read MoreSouth African geologist dedicates life to school kids and their toilets
Maybe we give a buck to that houseless veteran standing on the corner. Perhaps we donate to the annual holiday collection for families struggling to make ends meet. But how many of us would give up a lucrative career to dedicate our lives to those in need? Trevor Mulaudzi, that’s who. He once was a…
Read MoreEssay Review of The Bathroom: Small Spaces, Vast Systems
Reading The Bathroom: Small Spaces, Vast Systems published in Places by Dr. Barbara Penner, senior lecturer at Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, challenges one to think beyond the status quo for global sanitation design of toilets, hygiene, and sewers. Penner is not your typical architect. She pushes disciplinary boundaries to decipher historical and sociological elements…
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